Dawn Picken was farewelled at the Mount Maunganui Surf Club on Thursday. Photo / Alex Cairns
“I have lived a really good life and feel so blessed to have had the time that I’ve had on Earth.”
Those were the words Tauranga mother and writer Dawn Picken said in a pre-recorded video at her memorial service today.
The 52-year-old marathon runner, Bay of Plenty Times Weekend and Rotorua Daily Post Weekend writer and columnist, Toi Ohomai tutor and former television journalist lost her battle with a rare liver disease on December 26.
As Dawn spoke from her hospital bed in the video, tears and laughter were shared as about 100 people formally farewelled her at Mount Maunganui Surf Club.
The room was adorned with flowers, photos and copies of her book Love, Loss and Lifelines: My Year of Grief on the Run.
In the emotional video, Dawn said how much she loved her family and friends, running, writing and dog-walking buddies and soccer mum friends.
“I have lived a really good life and feel so blessed to have had the time that I’ve had on Earth.
“During that span of time, I’ve got to travel the world, raise Fiona and Finley which has been such a gift, and it’s a gift I wish their father could have had.”
Her husband Sean Stanelun died unexpectedly in 2010. Fiona and Finley were aged 5 and 3 at the time.
Dawn told her children to “keep going” even though life was unfair “because there’s still beauty and there’s still joy and I want you to have it all”.
To her partner, Stu Ede, Dawn said: “You have brought so much love into my life and I did not think I was going to have that again.
“I wish my forever with you were much, much longer.”
Becky Aud-Jennison, a longtime friend of Dawn’s, recalled meeting Dawn 12 years ago and they “quickly became family”.
“She was simply so vivacious and such a rock star.
“With the passion and [how] actively she lived her life, it was almost impossible to believe that Dawn’s life could ever be cut short.”
In October, she remembered seeing Dawn for breakfast and a walk on the beach.
“She seemed great to me for just being discharged [from the hospital] but yet she whispered, ‘I think this may be the beginning of the end’.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around that, bless her heart. And I still can’t.”
Aud-Jennison said she ran “race after race”, travelled, adventured and built her career.
She lit a candle for Fiona Stanelun, Dawn’s daughter, to represent their love for each other, saying she had never seen a mother and daughter as close as them.
Leanne Brooks, a Tauranga Hospital intensive care unit chaplain and counsellor, said she met Dawn “when she had one foot on this side of life and the other dappling death”.
“We had less than 30 days of connection, but wow, what a 30 days.”
Brooks said the Oxford dictionary defined “dawn” as “the time of day when light first appears”.
“Dawn was light and radiance to so many and she touched hearts and made a real difference.”
Brooks dedicated the last words of her speech to Dawn.
“You ran your greatest race and what a race you ran. An around-the-world marathon called life and you didn’t stop. There were lots of detours and some hurdles to jump along the way, but you got up and kept going with all your beautiful energy.
“Of all the races you ran, this was your victory. You deserve to rest now that you have crossed the finish line.”
Several friends and colleagues also spoke of their favourite memories with Dawn, including her putting on false eyelashes at 2.30am before a running race, swimming at the beach on a girls’ weekend away in “freezing cold water”, whitewater rafting and being the “powerhouse” of a public storytelling event Tell Me Tauranga.
Dawn’s health began to deteriorate in October when she was first admitted to Tauranga Hospital after showing signs of internal bleeding. She was later discharged but was readmitted on November 8 after her condition worsened.
Initially, a scan appeared to show a liver lobe had infarcted/died and a large portal vein clot, which meant she was not suitable for a liver transplant. Doctors suggested Dawn was approaching the end of her life.
After Dawn’s initial story was published on December 3, a liver specialist reviewed Dawn’s scans and got in touch three days later, wanting to carry out an assessment to see if a transplant were possible.
However, on December 20, specialists found cancerous tumours and the spots in her lungs, the blood clotting, and what looked like areas within her spleen and liver that had died were all related to invasive cancer, cholangiocarcinoma.
It meant Dawn’s liver could not handle any cancer treatment.
She returned to Waipuna Hospice, where she was supported by friends and family.